This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from my application entitled REFRIGERATOR HAVING FREEZING COMPARTMENT filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Dec. 29, 2000 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 2000-86189.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to refrigerators and, more particularly, to a refrigerator having a freezer compartment with an automatic ice-making system improved in its structure to accomplish efficient utilization of the storage space of the freezer compartment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, refrigerators are appliances that feed cool air generated from an evaporator into both a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment to maintain freshness of various foodstuffs stored in the two compartments. The freezer compartment typically stores foodstuffs to be maintained at a temperature of not higher than the freezing point, for example frozen meat, frozen fishes or the like, while the refrigerator compartment typically stores foodstuffs to be freshly maintained at a temperature of not lower than the freezing point, for example vegetables, fruits, beverages or the like.
The freezer compartment of a conventional large-sized refrigerator is typically provided with an automatic ice-making system comprising an automatic ice-maker for freezing fresh water to form ice cubes, an ice cube container for storing the ice cubes formed by the ice-maker, and an ice cube dispensing unit for dispensing the ice cubes from the container to the outside of the refrigerator. Therefore, when it is desired to use ice cubes, a user easily discharges ice cubes from the container through an ice cube discharge opening of a freezer compartment door without opening the door of the freezer compartment.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional freezer compartment equipped with such an automatic ice-making system.
The freezer compartment 11 is defined by a housing 10 having a top wall, a bottom wall and sidewalls. A front access opening of the freezer compartment 11 is provided with a freezer compartment door 12 for closing or opening the compartment 11. The above freezer compartment 11 is also provided at its rear wall with an evaporator 13 for generating cool air, and at its bottom wall with a compressor 14.
An automatic ice-making system 20 is installed inside the upper portion of the freezer compartment 11. This ice-making system 20 comprises an automatic ice-maker 21, an ice cube container 22 and an ice cube dispensing unit 23. The ice-maker 21 receives water from an external water supply (not shown) through a water supply hose 19 and forms ice cubes. The ice cube container 22 is provided at a position under the ice-maker 21 to store the ice cubes formed by the ice-maker 21, and the ice cube dispensing unit 23 is provided within the ice cube container 22 and discharges ice cubes from the container 22 to the outside of the refrigerator when a user operates the dispensing unit 23.
The freezer compartment 11 is also provided with a plurality of shelves 15 and storage boxes 16 at predetermined positions under the ice-making system 20 for holding frozen foodstuffs in the compartment 11.
The automatic ice-making system 20, provided at the upper portion inside the freezer compartment 11, must be designed to dispense ice cubes from the ice cube container 22 to the outside of the freezer compartment 11 without forcing a user to open the freezer compartment door 12. To this end, the freezer compartment door 12 is provided with an ice cube discharge conduit 24 for allowing ice cubes from the container 22 to pass therethrough, and is provided at its outer surface with a recessed station 25 for receiving the ice cubes discharged from the conduit 24. The recessed station 25 is provided with a switch lever 26 for activating the ice cube dispensing unit 23. Therefore, when a user pushes backward the switch lever 26 with a cup 100, the ice cube dispensing unit 23 is activated to dispense ice cubes from the container 22 into the cup 100. That is, water supplied from the outside is frozen by the ice-maker 21 to form ice cubes, and then the ice cubes are automatically fed into the ice cube container 22. When the ice cube dispensing unit 23 is activated by a user, the ice cubes in the container 22 are discharged from the container 22 to the recessed station 25 through the discharge conduit 24.
However, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, since the conventional ice cube container 22 set in the upper portion of the freezer compartment 11 has a width approximately equal to the width of the freezer compartment 11, the storage space of the freezer compartment 11 is not efficiently utilized. That is, the automatic ice-maker 21 has a relatively small width, and so it only occupies a portion of the freezer compartment 11 at a position around a sidewall of the compartment 11. However, the ice cube container 22 installed under the automatic ice-maker 21 occupies approximately the whole width of the storage chamber of the freezer compartment 11. An dead space D1 is thus left between the ice-maker 21 and the opposite sidewall of the compartment 11 at a position above the ice cube container 22. It is impossible for ice cubes from the ice-maker 21 to be stored in that space D1, and SO the space D1 is a useless space.
In the conventional ice-making system 20, the width W1 of the ice cube container 22 is designed to be larger than the width W2 of the ice-maker 21 so as to store a sufficient amount of ice cubes in the container 22. However, such a difference between the two widths W1 and W2 undesirably leaves dead spaces (D2) outside the opposite sides of the container""s bottom wall. That is, since the ice cube dispensing unit 23 is longitudinally and centrally arranged inside the ice cube container 22, the ice cubes stored inside the opposite sides of the container""s bottom wall cannot be effectively or smoothly fed to the dispensing unit 23 if the container 22 has a flat bottom wall meeting the sidewall at a right angle. Therefore, it is necessary to bulge the container""s bottom wall to naturally guide the ice cubes by gravity from the opposite sides of the bottom wall to the ice cube dispensing unit 23. However, the bulged shape of the container""s bottom wall undesirably leaves the dead spaces D2 outside the opposite sides of the container""s bottom wall as best seen in FIG. 2. In addition, since the automatic ice-maker 21 is arranged above the ice cube container 22 at a position eccentric from the central axis of the container 22 as shown in FIG. 2, the ice cubes from the automatic ice-maker 21 are accumulated to their maximum height at a position inside the container 22 just under the ice-maker 21. However, the height of the accumulated ice cubes is gradually lowered in a direction from the maximum height toward the side of the container 22 remote from the ice-maker 21 while leaving another dead space D3 within the container 22.
Furthermore, a water supply hose 19 for supplying water to the automatic ice-maker 21 extends through the sidewall of the freezer compartment 11 to reach the interior of the compartment 11 at its inside end. The inside end of the hose 19 also penetrates the sidewall of the automatic ice-maker 21 and is terminated at a position above an ice-making tray 27, and so the ice-maker 21 must be inevitably increased in its height due to the position of the water supply hose 19 relative to the ice-maker 21. With the configuration of the automatic ice-maker 21, the effective storage space of the conventional freezer compartment 11 is further reduced.
Therefore, the storage space inside the freezer compartment 11 is not efficiently utilized due to the structural defect of both the ice cube container 22 having such an excessive width (W1) and the automatic ice-maker 21 having such an excessive height. In addition, the part of the interior of the freezer compartment 11, at which the automatic ice-maker 21 and the ice cube container 22 are installed, is regrettably limitedly used only for ice-making. As a result, the refrigerators having a freezer compartment with both the automatic ice-maker 21 and the ice cube container 22 are reduced in the efficiency of their storage space, thereby being reduced in their operational efficiency and being inconvenient to users.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator, in which the automatic ice-making system inside a freezer compartment is structurally improved to preferably reduce its installation space and installation area, thus accomplishing more efficient utilization of the storage space inside the freezer compartment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator, in which the section of the freezer compartment with the automatic ice-making system is partitioned to separately form a quick cooling chamber.
In order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a refrigerator having a freezer compartment with both a first section for seating an automatic ice-making system and a second section for storing foodstuffs, wherein the automatic ice-making system comprises an automatic ice-maker for forming ice cubes, and an ice cube container provided under the automatic ice-maker for storing ice cubes from the automatic ice-maker, the ice cube container having a width almost equal to that of the automatic ice-maker; and the first section is divided into an automatic ice-making chamber for seating the ice-making system and a quick cooling chamber defined in a space left in the first section due to a reduction in the width of the ice cube container.
The automatic ice-making system further comprises a water supply hose for supplying water to the automatic ice-maker, the water supply hose being installed while penetrating the top wall of the freezer compartment, thus allowing a reduction in the height of the automatic ice-maker.
The automatic ice-maker is arranged along the central axis of the ice cube container, with the top opening of the ice cube container broadening to allow the ice cubes from the ice-maker to be smoothly introduced into the container and evenly accumulated in the container.
In the refrigerator, the ice cube container has a length longer than its width.
The quick cooling chamber is defined by a vertical partition wall separating the automatic ice-making chamber from the quick cooling chamber, with an openable cover plate closing or opening the front opening of the quick cooling chamber.
The ice cube container is mounted at its rear end to the rear wall of the freezer compartment, and is mounted at its opposite sides to the sidewall of the freezer compartment and the vertical partition wall positioned opposite to the sidewall of the freezer compartment.
The cover plate is provided at its upper and lower portions with an upwardly protruded hinge pin and a downwardly protruded hinge pin, the vertical partition wall is provided at its upper portion with a bracket having an upper hinge hole for rotatably receiving the upwardly protruded hinge pin, and the horizontal partition wall is provided with a lower hinge hole for rotatably receiving the downwardly protruded hinge pin, whereby the cover plate is rotatably hinged to both the horizontal partition wall and the vertical partition wall such that the cover plate is rotatable around the hinge pins received in the hinge holes.
The horizontal partition wall is provided at a portion around the lower hinge hole with a recess inwardly cut away, thus allowing the cover plate to be smoothly closed or opened.
The cover plate is provided at its lower edge with a locking protrusion protruded downwardly, and the horizontal partition wall has a locking slot at a position corresponding to the locking protrusion, thus receiving the locking protrusion to maintain a closed position of the cover plate.
In the refrigerator, an elastic rib extends rearward from the front edge of the locking slot to be terminated at a free end, thus allowing a smooth operation of the cover plate when the cover plate is closed or opened.
The quick cooling chamber is provided with a shelf extending horizontally from an approximate middle portion of the vertical partition wall.
The shelf is provided at its one edge around the vertical partition wall with at least one hinge pin extending in a direction parallel to the edge of the shelf, and the vertical partition wall is provided with at least one boss having a hinge hole rotatably receiving the hinge pin of the shelf, the shelf being thus foldable in a vertical direction around the hinge pin received in the hinge hole of the boss.
In the refrigerator, a projection extends from the vertical partition wall upward at a position horizontally aligned with the boss, and a recess is formed on the shelf at a position corresponding to the projection and receives the projection, thus maintaining a hinged joint of the hinge pin of the shelf and the boss of the vertical partition wall without allowing a removal of the shelf from the vertical partition wall caused by a forward or backward movement of the shelf relative to the vertical partition wall.
In addition, a supporting bar is mounted to the vertical partition wall to support the hinged edge of the shelf, and a vertical support plate stands upright on the horizontal partition wall so as to support the free edge of the shelf when the shelf is laid horizontally.